Blood Brothers themes take centre stage
The TES panel recommends amy_amies’ memory task for revising themes in the musical Blood Brothers.
What is it?
An active and competitive task that will develop pupils’ thinking and collaborative skills as they try to remember a visual depiction of the show’s themes from a PowerPoint display. In groups of four, pupils take turns to study the projected mind-map, which uses shapes, words and images to portray the key themes. Groups must then try to re-create the mind-map from memory on their own A3 sheet.
This fun group challenge can then be used in a plenary, with pupils creating a themes page using their own symbols, accompanied by written key points for revision.
How can it be used?
This adaptable task can be used to initiate class discussion of the play’s key themes. The introductory group work helps pupils to feel more confident when contributing their own ideas about the themes in the final task and can encourage highly engaged classroom responses in later lessons on the topic.
Alternatively, why not use the memory task for revision, to refresh pupils’ knowledge about the text and build their confidence before they face an exam paper?
